Bernhard Eisel Sprints to Win Stage 2 of 2009 Tour of Switzerland

Team Columbia-Highroad’s Bernhard Eisel stormed to a close but convincing bunch sprint victory in stage two of the 2009 Tour of Switzerland/Tour de Suisse’s earlier today. After Columbia-Highroad teammate Tony Martin had attacked on a first category climb, moving into the lead of the King of the Mountains classification, Eisel seized his chance in the 100-rider bunch sprint which finally decided the 150-kilometer stage.

Team Columbia-Highroad’s Bernhard Eisel stormed to a close but convincing bunch sprint victory in stage two of the 2009 Tour of Switzerland/Tour de Suisse’s earlier today. After Columbia-Highroad teammate Tony Martin had attacked on a first category climb, moving into the lead of the King of the Mountains classification, Eisel seized his chance in the 100-rider bunch sprint which finally decided the 150-kilometer stage.

The Team Columbia-HIghroad rider edged out Germany’s Gerald Ciolek (Team Milram) and Spain’s former triple World Champion Oscar Freire (Team Rabobank) for his first victory since taking the Paris-Bourges one-day race in France last autumn. “I went for a long sprint, found my own line and, above all, I didn’t look back until I crossed that finish line,” Eisel said afterwards. “It was a very technical finish. Fortunately [teammate] George Hincapie gave me a really good leadout, so I was in a great position to go for it and go for the stage win.”

After Columbia-Highroad had worked hard to control the race in the closing kilometres, Eisel said he had had no choice but to give it everything in the sprint. “Tony [Martin] had attacked, and at one point we thought he was going to win the stage. But then after he had been pulled back, Columbia-Highroad set things up perfectly for a bunch sprint. The only problem was that when I started sprinting, the line seemed like it was never going to arrive! I was nervous about Ciolek and Freire, too. They could have overtaken me right on the finish line. Fortunately I just managed to hang on. But it was close!”

"That was a very close decision. But the results will give Gerald [Ciolek] self-confidence for the next sprint,“ said Christian Henn, Team Milram's Directeur Sportif in Switzerland. „Our whole team put in a super performance. In the finale we took command together with Rabobank and brought Gerald into good position.“

The results of the second stage had no effect on the overall rankings. Prologue winner Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) of Switzerland continues to lead ahead of the Czech defending champion Roman Kreuziger (Liguigas) and Astana's German rider Andreas Klöden.